This disclosure is related to the field of neutron well logging measurements for determining petrophysical properties of subsurface formations traversed by a wellbore. More specifically, the disclosure relates to using various neutron cross section values determined from neutron measurements to determine one or more petrophysical parameters of such formations.
Various neutron based measurements have been used to evaluate characteristics of subsurface formations from a wellbore since at least the 1950s. Neutrons can interact with subsurface formations in different ways. They can be scattered elastically, which means kinetic energy and momentum are conserved; they can be scattered inelastically, which means certain nuclei go into an excited state while kinetic energy is lost; they can also be captured by a nucleus to form a new nucleus; it is also possible that the neutron interaction causes a nuclear reaction resulting in the emission of one or more nucleons from the target nucleus. The probability of a neutron interacting with a nucleus is measured by the respective interaction cross section, which is a function of many parameters, such as incident neutron energy, outgoing neutron energy (if a neutron emerges from the interaction), scattering angle, interaction type and interactive nucleus type, among others. Thus, neutrons can enable measurement of many different formation properties due to the variety and complexity of their interactions.
An important wellbore neutron measurement known in the art is the thermal neutron die-away measurement. This is a measure of how fast thermal neutrons disappear. If the rate of disappearance (“decay”) is approximated by an exponential function then the decay exponent (“decay constant”) can be used to directly determine the formation thermal neutron capture cross section. In the oil and gas industry the macroscopic neutron capture cross section of the formation is called “sigma”. Typically this cross section is measured in capture units (c.u.), where 1 capture unit is equal to 1000 cm−1.
Another important wellbore neutron measurement known in the art is the neutron porosity measurement. The basic principle of such measurement is to impart high energy neutrons (typically several MeV depending on the source type) into the formation and measure the thermal (or epithermal) neutron flux at a certain distance from the source. The detector can be either a neutron detector or a gamma ray detector (measuring neutron induced gamma rays as an indirect measurement of the neutron flux). This measurement is very sensitive to the hydrogen content in the formation because hydrogen is the most effective neutron moderator among all elements. High hydrogen content can slow down neutrons to thermal energy (0.025 eV at room temperature) before they can travel very far. Thus, HI (Hydrogen Index) and porosity (fresh water filled) may be used to interpret the measurement. A limitation of the neutron porosity measurement is that it is accurate only for water filled, clean (clay free) single lithology (such as sandstone, limestone and dolomite) formations. Some other environmental conditions need special treatment, such as gas-filled porosity, shale, and complex lithology. In addition, the thermal neutron porosity measurement is sensitive to various environment effects including temperature and borehole and formation salinity.
Slowing-Down Length (Ls) is a parameter that describes how far a fast neutron travels on average before it is slowed down to thermal energy. It has been used in the past to interpret the neutron porosity measurement as well. The tool response can be predicted accurately, but the limitation is that Ls does not follow a volumetric mixing law. Thus, this technique is not widely used by petrophysicists.